It’s been a very busy summer down at Knott’s Berry Farm. A new storyline is drawing guests to Ghost Town Alive by day, and Knott’s Summer Nights festival has folks staying well into the evenings. There’s so much live entertainment right now! Let’s take a look.
Beach Blanket Beagle
Returning this Summer is Beach Blanket Beagle. This musical stage show is particularly welcome during hot summer days, especially since it’s in the air-conditioned Charles M. Shultz Theater. The show follows a group of teenagers/young adults as they try to save their beach from being turned into a parking lot, of course with help from Snoopy!
New this year, Knotts added portraits of the show’s cast along the ramp to the theatre.
Also new this year, there are two screens on either side of the theater that are utilized in various ways. In the preshow, it plays the cast counting down until showtime. During the show, it displays sing-along lyrics and classic Peanuts cartoons.
If you haven’t seen Beach Blanket Beagle, here’s a quick synopsis:
In order to save the cast’s favorite beach from becoming a parking lot, Snoopy and the crew raise money by participating in various contests.
Of course, the beachgoers didn’t read the fine print leading to a running gag of different strange prizes and to “Stay Away From Dead Man’s Cove.”
Watch out for the splash zone…
When all else fails, the gang heads to a traditional luau to enjoy their last night on their favorite beach.
A luau isn’t complete without an incredible fire dancing show, and this one doesn’t disappoint.
Snoopy finally saves the day dressed as King Kamehameha! It’s silly and adorable.
Although the show is almost exactly the same this year, it is great to see it again. Check out our video from last year:
Summer Nights
This was my first chance to see Summer Nights and my conclusion is…it’s awesome! Where to start? The character interaction is amazing, the lawn games are super fun, the food…it’s Knott’s, so it’s incredible!
Knott’s seems to have soaked up a lot of the local bands, even some that previously played over at Disneyland. They’re fantastic and rocking the three venues for the event. When I visited, the artists were different than those we previously reported; there’s a nice rotating schedule of entertainment throughout the summer.
The main stage seems to be swapping between The Suffragettes and Hiatus. We previously saw Hiatus, who play a great mix of mostly 70s, 80s, and 90s pop rock and hard rock. The Suffragettes play a mix of 2000s pop rock with plenty of girl power since they’re an all-female band. Both are great to listen and dance to.
There’s a larger rotation on the Calico Mine Stage. We previously mentioned Doug Legacy & The Zydeco Cajun Party Band, but there seems to be a new band up here almost every night.
We were excited to see the Orange County favorites, Suburban Legends on stage, they’ve been fairly dormant since 2015 when they decided to stop touring.
Be sure to check Knott’s show list to see what bands are playing on which day, it’s a great list! This week the Calico Park Stage is going to be home to a lot of old Disneyland favorites including Mariachi Angelitas, Sligo Rags, Suburban Legends, John Reynolds & His Hot Peppers, and Doug Legacy & The Zydeco Cajun Party Band.
The DJ and dancing can be a bit hit or miss. Maybe this area needs a few more things to indicate where the dance floor is. The addition of characters to the dance party would be more interesting. Wouldn’t it be cool to dance with Snoopy?
I’ve visited weekday and weekend nights. This event is very popular, with crowds starting to form around 5:30 each night. The party, unfortunately, doesn’t start until 7. Knott’s could easily start this thing earlier.
Some of the food booths like the Churro and Ice Cream booths have started opening early around 3pm each day.
Some of the food items actually rotate, so be aware of that. We noticed they were trying some new fish tacos, a different salad, and a different kind of sausage. We tried the new blue cheese and apple salad and while it was good, the raspberry salad we had tried earlier was the clear winning recipe.
We had also mentioned that the skewers seemed a little dry and now there are three options for sauce. They’ll brush it with some vinaigrette on request and a Greek and Teriyaki sauce are available to dip in. We also hadn’t tried the shrimp and sausage skewer since they ran out last time and we definitely recommend it, especially with all three sauces.
If you want to read our full review of Summer Nights, check it out:
Ghost Town Alive
We definitely want to make mention of Ghost Town Alive during this time of year. It’s one of the most unique offerings at any theme park and we keep coming back to enjoy it. With Summer Nights’ rotating schedule, it’s given us a nice excuse to enjoy continuing some of our quests from previous Ghost Town visits.
If we haven’t expressed our appreciation to the team at Knott’s for this enough so far, we want everyone to know this needs to stick around. We really need to finish our trail marking guide, anyways.
Around the Farm
It’s Summer and lots of changes are still happening around the Farm…
DoughKnott’s
Outside the park, Knott’s has rethemed their Bakery Express location to DoughKnott’s, featuring gourmet doughnuts. They’re essentially heaven made from sugar.
They looked soooo good, I had to grab two. I got the Boysenberry and the S’mores, both were incredible. There’s nothing quite like a donut with a scoop of boysenberry pie in the middle. SO GOOD!
Not only are they superior to the ones at Disneyland, but they are also cheaper. It’s $4 for one and $7 for two, but we all know you’ll want two.
Searching for Berry Market
There were a few Berry market items during the Boysenberry Festival that were almost immediately sold out near the beginning of the Festival. Knott’s finally started receiving new stock in most of the items, here are a couple we noted that were hard to find for the last few months:
Cobbler was introduced during the Boysenberry Festival and Knott’s was surprised at how quickly these things sold out. We tried our mix with the accompanying can of boysenberries and it was wickedly good. The cobbler mix and can of boysenberry filling are now available separately and are no longer a part of the same price.
Let us know if there are any new Berry market additions you’ve found.
The Mystery at Mystery Lodge
Knott’s has suspended performances at the Mystery Lodge for an unknown reason. This attraction opened in 1994 and definitely shows its age. The practical effects, Pepper’s Ghost, and its excellent story has kept it going for all these years.
Rumors are swirling but nothing official from Knott’s. Though, the park did reply on Twitter to a fan question:
So we will have to wait and see.
What are your thoughts folks? Has Mystery Lodge’s time come to an end? What would you like to see in this space?
The Historic Montezooma’s Revenge
Last week Montezooma’s Revenge received a special honor. The Shuttle Loop Flywheel launching coaster has received “Historic Coaster” status by the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) for “Longest Standing Shuttle Loop – Flywheel Coaster” and “Last of the Shuttle Loop – Flywheel Coaster standing in the USA.”
A Few Other Things
Around the park, Knott’s has added new Coke Carts next to the four Ice Cream carts that they added last year. These Carts are excellently themed to their respected lands.
At Little Spurs, Knott’s may have bought one of those chainsaw carvings that were featured during Boysenberry Festival. The Bear figure makes an excellent addition.
Soak City
Soak City is a local favorite since it’s easy to “slide” in almost any day of the week. For a lot of us, this is our community pool. It’s just $27 more to add Soak City on to your annual pass.
Banzai Falls was not operating when I visited. This is a mat-slide racer.
Fourth of July
If you can make it, be sure to head down to the Farm for July 4th as Knott’s will feature their annual fireworks extravaganza at 9:30pm as part of their Summer Nights entertainment.
Celebrate National Fried Chicken Day with Mrs. Knott’s Famous Fried Chicken- July 6th
This Saturday, July 6, in celebration of National Fried Chicken Day, Knott’s is giving guests the opportunity to enjoy the famous Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restuarant with a special, one-day discount. Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant and Knott’s Chicken-To-Go are offering a 10% discount with the order of Mrs. Knotts fried chicken. Plus, there will be photo-ops at the restaurant and a commemorative National Fried Chicken Day t-shirts at Virginia’s Gift Shop.
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That’s it for now. We will be back soon with another great update from Knott’s Berry Farm!